ugh, this got too long for me to not grunch...
Renton, like someone else said, when tipping is in play there is this gross sort of slimey feeling to the whole transaction. Something that should typically be at least decent, human interaction, is turned into this fake performance. Like comparing sex to sex with a prostitute. This is mildly unpleasant for the non-narcissistic customer when it isn't well disguised by the server, but potentially detrimental to the long term psychological health of the server. I literally would turn away from a customer, shed the smile, and think "that was fucking gross" all in one instant. So there's that... then there's the stress of inconsistent wages-- which shouldn't be such a problem, but clearly people working these jobs aren't on average very good financial planners. And lastly, I'd like to point out that truly exceptional service rarely sees the server keeping 100% of their tips, or anywhere close to it for that matter. "Tipping out" to positions that generally don't receive direct tips, but assist the server (such as a bus boy, food runner, host, etc) is super standard. Then there are tip pools, which are much more common in fine dining, where phenomenal service is actually a goal and not just a potential bi-product of trying to make as much money as possible.
That's a bit of a rant, but if you'd like, we can get into how check(and therefore tip)-boosting tricks, like "up-selling" are far worse than not having your water glass filled to the brim constantly, or whatever else it is that you (in general) consider bad service.
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